The Season to Fall
by Kisho101
Summary: People associate autumn with feasts and treats. They associated autumn as the season to fall in love.


_**The Season to Fall**_

_Just hope someone special catches you._

He had always associated her name with the spring. The cherry blossoms that would float through the air while he walked around town, reading his Icha Icha books, reminded him of her. He had always thought that she would smell of the fragrant blossoms, but instead she smelled of sun-ripened strawberries and something sweet yet earthy that he couldn't quite decipher. She had a heat reminiscent to summer and a cold chill similar to winter. In a sense, she reminded him…of fall, which was a perfect mixture of the two seasons. She reminded him of the subtle beauty of fall and he found his heart beating like a drum in his chest when he thought of her.

The change that autumn brought about was refreshing to the young kunoichi. The crisp air reminded her, for a reason she couldn't quite place, of a certain Sensei of hers. Perhaps it was the mystery that autumn presented that reminded her of him. She decides to take a seat on a bench because it was late and she could feel the overall stress of the day was taking a toll on her body. She winces as she remembers that she's sitting in the same bench she was abandoned at. However, she believes she is wiser now, more mature. Also, there is no one to abandon her now. Her mind wanders back to the masked shinobi. The full moon reminds her of his hair and the dark night of his mask. She finds herself wondering what it would be like to pull down that mask of his and feel his lips upon hers, his arms encircled around her waist, her hands entangled in his hair-

"Sakura" She can feel a slight heat rise to her cheeks. She had been getting worked up over Kakashi for a while. She had dismissed it as a crush, but this had felt stronger than she imagined a mere crush would have.

"Hi Kakashi-sensei." Odd, he didn't have his beloved orange book with him. She looked into his visible eye and the raw emotion she saw shocked her to her core. There were too many to decode. What she did catch…was a small look of…love? Her feelings for him were just getting to her head, she decided. She just needed some rest and a good slap on the head. _Oh great, he has to sit that close?! _

"What are you doing out?"

"Just heading home." Alone…. The truth was he had decided that he would confess his feelings to her. Then he saw her sitting on the bench. The way the wind blew back her hair and the way the moon made her green eyes shine made him go slack and so he decided he would wait until tomorrow…perhaps.

There they sat in a slightly comfortable silence, watching the orange and red leaves swirl around. She had to find a way to see if he might like her. It was going to be tricky.

"Kakashi-sensei… what would you say if Naruto was in love with you… if he was a girl?" How does one respond to that?

"I guess that would be odd since I don't quite like Naruto like that…probably even if he was a girl." The idea of Naruto loving him in general didn't sit too well with him. He sometimes wondered if there had been something going on between Naruto and Sasuke. But if he remembered correctly, Naruto was with Hinata. He also wondered why she had asked such a strange question.

"Oh…but say you did like Naruto back. Would it matter to you that you're 14 years his senior?"

"…Age isn't that important to me. You can't help who you fall in love with." It was true. Both of them felt that it couldn't be helped. Love was like fall. Just like the leaves, changing colors and swirling through trees, love changed people. She breathed in the crisp air and took the leap, hoping that he would catch her and she wouldn't fall.

"Kakashi, I think I might…love you." All he could do was blink. She started to think that his silence was his rejection. She tried searching his eye for any sort of emotion or reaction, but she gave up and instead looked at the leaf that was slowly flying toward the moon, through the night sky. Like the red leaf, her heart seemed to be falling and heading in an unknown direction. Why did she have such bad luck on benches?

She was about to turn around to tell him that it was alright if he didn't feel the same, when she felt herself being turned around and crushed into a strong pair of arms. What surprised her the most was the soft pair of lips that made their way onto hers. There they sat, embracing each other under the glow of the moon, it being the only one to witness the loving and tender scene that went on below.

Yes, autumn changed many things on earth: the leaves, the weather. People often related autumn to holidays filled with feasts and treats. Kakashi and Sakura, however, would always treasure autumn as the season that they fell in love.


End file.
